Tuesday, 29 April 2014

For this card, I stamped a Paper Smooches stamp in Unicorn White ink before embossing it with white ep. I then dug out my old chalks - remember those? and rubbed a bit of yellow over the bulb portion and a bit of grey on the screwy-in portion. I love how it looks like it's glowing in all that white space! Yes, white space can be any colour at all, even black. It's often called clear space, which is really more accurate. All it means is breathing room and that's really what makes any card feel clean.

This Cue Card is fun with lots of directions to go in - make sure you check out the rest of the DT's blogs for more inspiration!

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Welcome to the Mother's Day Inspiration Blog Hop! We're making projects we like, using products we like!!

This card uses the same Magnolia tulip stamp as my previous mother's day card this year but in a different way. I repeated it and cropped it so I could create this rainbow of tulips. A simple sentiment and black strip complete the card.

Be sure to check out all the blogs
for tons of crafty Mother's Day Inspiration!

Saturday, 26 April 2014

Hello! Here's my card for a new-ish challenge - Time Out, where my friend Virginia is the special guest. Our challenge is to CASE this card that she made for our inspiration:

I focused on the colours and the basic layout, but also tried to CASify it a bit by leaving out some of the layers, the black strip, the twine and the embellishments. I used inlaid die cuts again (see the card I made for this week's Muse challenge here).

I cut the PTI flowers in orange and the centres in poppy. Then I added copic shading to give the illusion of dimension - I love how they turned out and how they pop right off the card without actually popping off the card! (but next time I would do the shading before I glued them into the card!). The sentiment is a Paper Smooches die.

Friday, 25 April 2014

The challenge is to use 3 of something (colours, elements, accessories, etc) on just 1/3 of the card front.

I started by dividing my card front into 3. I embossed a 3-word sentiment from Shenanigans and placed 3 white die cut dots above the 'i' in wish, trying to get a blowing-the-dandelion kind of feeling. This was my 3rd attempt at embossing in white, which has not always been a favourite technique of mine. What finally made it work was using white pigment ink rather than Versamark ink with my white embossing powder - almost like a layer of primer before paint. It made a BIG difference!

I hope you'll join us this month - the deadline for this challenge is May 23.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

My creativity has been lagging lately - my recycling bin is full of ideas that just didn't work. This happens to me from time to time - a period of time where nothing seems to be inspiring and nothing seems to be working. I find the best way to 'cure' it, is to just keep creating and looking around. And then this morning, I was scrolling through my Feedly and this week's CASE Study Challenge, appeared, where our inspiration is this beautiful collage card made with stickers by Jaclyn. I knew immediately what I wanted to make! And it only took me two tries to get something I'm happy to post!

I used a Simon Says Stamp sentiment, curved on the acrylic block, and a graphic butterfly from My Stamp Box.

I hope you'll get the chance to play along with us this week - the deadline is Monday at 8 am. You can then vote for your favourites until Tuesday at 8 and results will be posted Tuesday at noon. Can't wait to see you there!

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

I'm not much of a gardener myself, but I do love to see all the beautiful spring flowers! This ultra-CAS card uses some of those tiny little 'extra' stamps that come in sets - you know the ones. They're not the reason you bought the set and you've probably never used them, right? They were never meant to be the focal point of the card, but why not? This tiny garden is from an old Inky Antics set and the thank you is from Stampin' Up's Sweetie Pie-Frames set. Put them together with a little bit of colour and you have a perfectly pretty and CAS thank you card!

Now it's your turn - what's growing in your garden? Here are links to the DT members' blogs - check them out for more inspiration!

Saturday, 19 April 2014

I don't normally make two cards for each Muse Challenge (I wouldn't want the DT members to think I've got a favourite! lol!) but this week I received a card in the mail from the lovely Anita, thanking me for sending her a birthday card last month (as you'll recall, we were all a month late celebrating her birthday).

I love the simple design, and you just know that I love the rainbow colours, but I saw another opportunity to use Therese's Muse as an inspiration as well, using a similar idea as my previous card.

I used an A Muse Studio sentiment (love how it follows the curve of the circle!) and a sketchy circle from Papertrey. I alternated the direction of the sketch lines so that they would criss-cross where the circles overlap. After I stamped the circle in the 5 colours, I went back and restamped them in Versamark and then embossed with iridescent embossing powder.

Don't forget the deadline for Muse is Monday morning at 8 am. You can vote from Monday at 8 to Tuesday at 8. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, 17 April 2014

This is my card for this week's Muse challenge, which is this fun card by Therese:

I focused on the colour scheme, the gradation of the blues down the page, and the texture added by the wooden sailboat and popped up sentiment. I used little enamel dots and a simple Stampin' Up sentiment.

I hope you'll get a chance to play along with us this week - the deadline is Monday at 8:00 am EDT. At that point, voting starts (and even if you didn't link up a card, you can vote!) until Tuesday morning at 8:00. Results will then be posted on Tuesday at noon. I look forward to seeing you there!

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Today's the start of a new Card Concept Challenge! The challenge is to use an umbrella.

Coincidentally, I was asked by a friend to make a shower card for a wedding that has a black, silver and white colour theme. It took me a while to come up with a fun (and clean & graphic, of course!) way to incorporate the umbrella in my card. I cut a square white panel, and then cut a curve out of it. I stamped and embossed the heart-rain and stamped the sentiment and adhered it to a black card base. I then took a circle punch and created the scalloped edge. When the card's closed, you can see the inside white panel and that gives it a bit more definition.

Now it's your turn - what style will you try this week?

Our Rules

Use the Challenge to create a card.

Choose one of the design team "styles" to create your card. Click HERE for the different styles summary.

Explain in your post which style you used.

Link up your blog post here, not your whole blog.

Comment on the card ahead of you and behind you in the linky. Everyone loves comments!

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

This is my second post for today. For my CASology Note card, please scroll down.

The other night, we watched Pirate Radio (AKA The Boat that Rocked), starring Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Brannagh etc., etc., (GREAT cast!). It's set in the late 60s and one of the girls was wearing a dress that inspired this card:

Perfectly groovy as a last-minute link up to this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge, I think!

Is this the simplest card you've ever seen? It may be the simplest one I've ever made! I reached for a Post-it note, stamped a Stamps of Life smile on it and there you go - a perfect reminder for someone that they make you smile! (I did adhere the Post-it permanently so that the message won't get left in the envelope!)

You can use anything you can find to make a card - even a CAS card - just remember the white space! Office supplies are a natural supplement to your crafting supplies!

Now it's your turn! I can't wait to see how this cue card inspires you. Below are links to the blogs of the rest of the DT members - go check them out for some more inspiration!

Monday, 14 April 2014

This card has been a long time coming. My mom is the director of her church's handbell choir and about a year ago, I bought this little handbell stamp from Handbell Services Inc. I thought it would make a perfect "keep calm" type card. There were a number of little difficulties - the stamp is solid, but handbells are metal with a leather handle. Finally it occurred to me that I could do two-toned embossing - black for the handle, gold for the bell (or should it be silver?!). There are lots of 'keep calm' stamps around, and this one came from A Muse Studios. I cut out the 'stamp' (it was originally Keep Calm and Stamp On) and used Kelly Purkey's Plain Jane alpha to insert 'ring'.

So a cute card that will bring a smile to a limited audience but that's exactly what this hobby is all about, right? The ability to personalize cards for unusual situations!

Sunday, 13 April 2014

This time, I used my PTI Circle Cover Plate die both to cut the circles and then to place them (I used the negative 'lattice' that was left over and just popped the circles inside for a perfect line-up! This is my smallest little 'thanks' and I'm afraid I lost track of who made it. The 'so much' is a Stampin' Up sentiment from Trendy Trees.

Yesterday was Scrapfest in Kitchener. Tracey McNeely and I drove there and met Virginia Lu to spend some time chatting and looking around to see what was what!

Tracey and I wandered into a booth where they were featuring CAS-ual Stamps and doing make-and-takes. We couldn't resist announcing that we are Girl Fridays and the reaction from the instructor was AMAZING! She was so thrilled to see us there and just couldn't say enough about the great products and the great support they had received from Michelle! At the next booth, I ran into Nicky, who taught me one of the first classes I ever took in cardmaking, way back in 2006 - I was so happy to see her and was then both humbled and honoured to hear that she's following my blog! Wow! What a spectacular day! (the only disappointment was narrowly missing meeting my online friend and OLS teammate, Karen - something to look forward to next year!)

Friday, 11 April 2014

This grid layout is such a classic. It's classic because it's incredibly versatile - you can use it over and over and every card can be different. It's also classic because it's full of 3's. Three rows, three columns. Your eye loves this layout! Trust me!

For this card I flipped it upside down so that the "happy" can be my "sentiment" and the birthday is the grid. I used Memory Box dies to create the letters. I cut them in white for two reasons. First - you can run them all through at the same time on one piece of white cardstock. Second - I wanted to use specific copic colours - I don't have matching cardstock for all these colours. OK, actually, now that I look at it, I do, but go back to reason 1 - one pass through the cuttlebug!

ETA - a couple of you wondered about the dimension of the letters. I cut them twice and stacked them to get that dimension before colouring them and then coating them with Stickles.

I decided to focus solely on the mirror - the white oval frame with the silver inside. I used an old Stampin' Up sentiment and went white-on-white for the rest of the card - very simple, clean and elegant! Because of the oval, I'm also going to link this up to CAS-ual Fridays' 'Good Egg' challenge.

Now it's your turn! You've got until April 23 to link up - I hope you're having fun keeping up with your Christmas cards through the year - just think how relieved you'll be in December when they're all made and all you have to do is send them!